RMHH Blogs

Too Kool Posse - Give ‘Em A Sample 1988

Tony D - Adams Nightmare 1989

Tony D - Back To The Lab 1989

Tony D - Buggin’ On The Line 1991

Tony D - Trenton Skit/He’s The Boss 2001

If every great hip-hop producer has a defining album, Tony D’s is without a doubt Poor Righteous Teachers’ “Holy Intellect” (1990). During sampling’s heydays, he managed to present a unique, fresh sound, supporting Wise Intelligent’s Five Percenter teachings with a playful, upbeat backing. Representing Trenton, NJ, Tony Depula, of Italian heritage himself, saw no problem in working with radically pro-black rappers, early on teaming up with YZ, whose “Sons Of The Father” (1990) debut they co-produced. (In fact, his production company Two-Tone Productions might originally have been called such because Tony D and YZ are both named Anthony.) An early display of Tony D’s mastership is Too Kool Posse’s “Give ‘Em A Sample” (1988), a dense uptempo stormer that serves, in the words of rapper Marquis, “to prove the point that Tone is on the uprise.”

While Diamond D still backed Master Rob in Ultimate Force, Tony D already had a solo cut on Jazzy Jay’s compilation “Cold Chillin’ in the Studio Live” (1989). “Back To The Lab” has that typical Tony D compressed sound to it, still resulting in a colorful appropriation of the “Microphone Fiend” theme. Tone may have been rapping even before, perhaps on the ‘87 single “It’s My Day” by Grand Poobah Tony D & Cool Gino G, but he seemed to get really serious about a rap career with the album “Droppin’ Funky Verses” (1991), which contained the extremely funky “Buggin’ On The Line.” The same year he saw a local Jersey crew take one of his creations to international fame. Naughty By Nature’s “O.P.P.” only slightly reconfigurated his distinct take on the Jackson 5’s “ABC” and Delegation’s “Oh Honey,” “Adams Nightmare” from his instrumental album “Music Makes You Move” (1989).

Keeping busy, Tone was involved in two more PRT albums, “Pure Poverty” (1991) and “Black Business” (1993), between which he helmed the group Crusaders For Real Hip-Hop, on whose album “Déjà-Vu - It’s ‘82″ (1992), he adopted the moniker Don Nots. In the mid-’90s he made somewhat of a comeback, partially producing Wise Intelligent’s solo “Killin’ U… For Fun” (1996), yet was absent from the PRT album “The New World Order” from the same year. Releasing two EP’s and one LP on Rae & Christian’s Grand Central label, his work seemed to be more valued overseas. Having hung the mic up, he now explored the possibilities of hip-hop independent from MC’s, switching between vocal tracks and instrumentals, and rappers and singers. The largely instrumental album “Master Of The Moaning Beats” (2001) took him back to Jersey with contributions from the Outsidaz and long-time collaborator Rahzii.

Lately, Tony has been spotted selling rare and unreleased material from his vaults as well as collections of ‘random rap’ such as “The Indy Years” and “Da Philly Throwback.” Juding from his MySpace page, Tony D is still active, so if you like what you’re hearing, check him out.

Tony D on discogs

Tony D on MySpace

Tony D on SoundClick

Every Sunday is Ressurection Sunday but on this day, we celebrate the raising of Christ from the dead to fulfill prophecy and to grant us an opportunity at everlasting life. It is the reason that we, as Christians, worship on Sunday and not on the Sabbath (Saturday). I had been thinking of what Christ did for us (humanity) over the last week and I thought of a scenario that really broke it down for me.

Imagine, if you will, a parent who teaches their child everything they need to know to prepare them for college. The parent teaches them how to live, how to treat others, how to take tests and pass, how to manage their time, how to become an excellent college student as well as an excellent human being. All the while, the parent is demonstrating ways for the child to improve their relationship with them. Fast forward to the college years. The child is away at college and totally screws up. Late night parties, promiscuity, failing classes. The parent sees this and tells the child that they know the child screwed up. But the parent is going to come to campus and walk with the child through their college years. They will be with them in every class, with them for every test, showing them what it truly means to be a well-rounded, excellent human being and as well as son/daughther. The parent stays with the child, still teaching them, clearing up any misunderstandings the child may have incurred before. The parent goes through everything with the child, the ups, the downs, the successes and the failures, still teaching the child what they need to know to get through college and life. All the while, the parent lets the child know that they are only there temporarily. That as the child gets closer to graduation, the parent will have to leave. It is ineveitable. The child, enjoying the parent's personalized attention so much and so enamored by the teaching, refuses to believe the parent. Graduation comes around and the time comes for the parent to leave. The parent tells the child that they have to go but they will send a comforter to be with them as they go through life and career. This comforter will be there for advice, guidance, assistance and to futher clarify and minunderstandings and interpretations. But in order for the Comforter to come, the parent must leave. The parent lets the child know that they must leave but when the child is done- done with their career, done with life-- when the time comes for the child to retire, there will be a place of eternal peace set aside by the parent. A place where struggles and heartaches are no more. A place of mansions with many rooms. A place of no hunger and no thirsting. A place to be in harmony with the parent. This is the story of Easter. The story of a loving Christ who died for us, rose, is our intercessor to the Father, and will come again for His church.

Happy Ressurection Sunday.

(pics from queen of subtle)

This is an interview I did with Lyrics Born right before Overnight Encore dropped last year. LB’s live show is the least corny live rap show I’ve ever seen and I swear that’s not a backhanded compliment. The live album does a pretty good job of capturing the show’s energy. Anyways, URB only used like three lines from the interview and I just found the full text again tonight.

Enjoy.

how long have you been doing a show with a live band?

i put the band together in late 2004. we played all throughout 2005 and, obviously, now onto 2006. for me, the whole point was…obviously i’ve been making records for a long time, and i’ve been touring and playing shows for a while, and it was really the next logical step for me as a live performer. i still do play with dj’s, i still love playing with dj’s, but i definately hit a point where i wanted to try something new.

was it just people you knew?

a few of em were mutual friends, friends of friends, ones that had played in other bands. the music scene in the bay area is pretty small.

there’s a few live hip-hop bands in the bay, aren’t there? live human’s the one i think of, but I know the coup is touring with band too.

I don’t know if it’s the next step for hip-hop, but I know it was the next step for me. and I think because of the way my music sounds, it lends itself to that.

yeah with the disco-funk aesthetic, i keep expecting gap band hooks to come in. i know “callin out” did really well on rock radio, did that influence your decision to take it more live, thinking that your audience was shifting that way and that they might respond better to a live set?

i think so. I started to look around and see that most of the big shows weren’t opening their doors to very few groups that were going strictly off turntables. but that’s just sort of a happy byproduct of the whole thing. i wanted to grow. when i came up, i listened to a lot of early 90’s dancehall, and a lot of those guys were essentially doing what I do, but they had bands. it was exciting to see. it was a different kind of energy. and they would play in front of dj’s too, but when they took the show on the road, or if it was a big festival or a big show, they had bands behind them. shabba ranks had a band behind him. ninjaman had a band behind him. you see buju on tour, he’s got a band. it allows you to do a lot of things in a lot of different ways. it allows you to be more spontaneous. and for me, it was the next logical step, like I said.

and also, when I was coming up, the artists I respected like BDP or curtis mayfield or public enemy, I mean, these guys played live shows and did live albums. and just going back to what you said, I think I may be one of the few hip-hop artists to ever even put out a live album. that’s before we even talk about independantly. for me, when I leave music, I want people to be able to look back and see what it was that i was doing live in addition to what it was that i was doing in the studio. because they’re two totally different animals. i spend so much time on the road, I do 150 shows every year, it’s such a big part of who I am as an artist, it just seemed appropriate to put out an album.

so you mentioned the early 90’s dancehall artists, who else were your inspirations in terms of were you tried to go with your live show?

like I said, I loved watching reggae groups. I loved watching old james brown tapes, just seeing what they were doing. I loved old parliament videos.

you can definitely tell there’s a p-funk influence.

yeah, to tell you the truth, I’m more of a fan of old parliament live than I am of a lot of their records. they have such a live sounding sound, being live is just crazy. i’m talking about the old stuff.

well even the george clinton revivals we get now are still pretty crazy for that reason.

I mean, they’re just nuts. they’re chaotic, in a good way. i was really affected by seeing prince as a little kid. prince concerts. when I think of all the great performers, I’m not talking necessarily about the top selling aritsts of all time, but I’m looking at the great performers of all time, they all had great live shows. and that’s just what i aspire to do.

talking about all your influences, it sounds like you pretty knew what you were going for from day one. do you feel like the set’s evolved at all over time?

my set? no doubt. as I grow and as my audience grows, you have to play differently. you play differently to different crowds. I’m not gonna play the same show at a Reggae on the River as I am Lolapalooza. I’m not gonna do Coachella the same I’m gonna do Hip-Hop in the Park. you just go out there, you scope out what the audience is looking like, you think about your history in that country or that town or that state, you think about what people responded to in the past and you just roll with that. I think most touring professional bands will tell you that.

so half the album’s in melbourne, half the album’s in sydney. any reason you chose austrailia?

number one, they’re a fantastic music audience. as a live music audience, they’re unbelievable. they really love music in austrailia. and they love live music. i’ve been goin out there since ‘97 or ‘98 with latyrx, and they’ve always been crazy. so i thought to myself, pretty much whether it’s a live album or a studio album, I sit back and I look at the landscape and I say ok, what are people not doing? one of the things people are not doing is live albums. so let me go ahead and do a live album. ok, where are people not doing live albums? well I’ve never really heard of a live album done in australia, and being that I have such a good following out there, why not go ahead and do it out there? you can hear it on the record, they’re just fucking out of their minds. that kind of speaks for itself. so many people, if they’re gonna do live albums, they’re gonna do it in san fransisco, they’re gonna do it in new york. something like that. london. but like I said, I haven’t heard anybody do this yet. so that was why. and it is interesting when you step back and you see how big the world really is. a lot of people don’t realize…the world is bigger than the block…for me,it’s bigger than the bay.

talking about the bay, so you said it’s a very small scene. you got mistah fab on the album. did you reach out to him for that?

yeah I did reach out to fab. because…well, first off, fab is just a dope emcee. and, obviously, it’s a whole new generation of rappers and producers and musicians out there. and I tried to get a little of that on the live album. teak, the guy that did “knock knock,” these guys are like in their early 20’s and they’ve produced songs for ice cube and wc. and trackademics are one of the bigger name producers in the bay area. and fab obviously. just keep it fresh.

are you planning on working on anyone else in the hyphy movement?

definately, y’know, but it’s gotta work. I don’t really look at it like, is it hyphy or not, I just look at it like is it good? I want to make a song that’s gonna be tight, i want to make an album that’s gonna be dope. it’s gotta be good. so I hope to. actually I am, I’m working on a new studio album now and I’ve got people on there.

you gonna drop any names?

not yet.

so you’re working on a new studio album. any hope for a new latyrx album?

well right now I’m finishing up joyo velarde’s album and I’m really excited about that, I love the way that album’s turning out.

who’s producing that?

i did about half the album, jake one, he did beats on there. rjd2 did some production on there, cheif xcel from blacklicious, jumbo from the lifesavas. my whole band is on there. if you love classic soul and you love what’s going on now also, this is the album for you. first quarter 2007. and I’m working on a new studio album that’ll be out next year.

latyrx any time soon?

we’ve talked about it. he’s got an album that he just finished, once we kind of both get those out of the way, we’re talking about doing another one. the 14th year reunion.

sorry this is in sloppy recently transcribed form. i spilled beer on my ibook last night and now my left and right arrows don’t work. luckily everything else does, but that makes editing a bitch.

Ras-T - ‘Nine-Six Million Dollar Man 1996

Salaam Remi is probably enjoying the most successful spell of his career thus far, as go-to producer for Nas and Amy Winehouse.

The son of musician and producer Van Gibbs he got his studio start through his father’s work on Kurtis Blow’s “Kingdom Blow” LP in 1986. His first notable beats were Zhigge’s “Rakin’ In The Dough (Uptown Bounce)” and Biz Markie’s “Young Girl Blues”. Bonafide slappers both.

He scored an international pop-reggae hit with Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes The Hotstepper” in 1994. In the mid-90s he worked with Hiphop artists like Da Bush Babees, Channel Live and Black Sheep as well as Reggae artists like Mega Banton and Shabba Ranks before effectively MAKING the Fugees by producing their breakthrough “Nappy Heads (Remix)” and “Fu-Gee-La” singles. He produced the phenomenal “Norfside Remix” of Kool G Rap’s “Fast Life” (previously attributed wrongly to Buckwild on this very site, our bad).

From what I can gather he launched two labels, Norfside Records, a Hiphop label and Hot Ice Records a home for reggae artists including Ricky General.
The only artist I noticed at the time emerging from these labels was Jamaica, Queens’ Ras-T. He appeared on volumes 1 and 2 of Funkmaster Flex’s “60 Minutes Of Funk” mixtape series and released the above track “‘Nine-Sixe Million Dollar Man” produced by Remi.
His single “Ill Nig” got some radio play but I didn’t hear anything more from him or Norfside records, which is a real shame as both tracks and his Funk Flex appearances had A LOT of swagger.

Salaam spent the rest of the 90s walking the rap/reggae line from Wyclef to Red Rat and didn’t really pop up on my radar again until he started working with Nas. Enough has already been written about the throwback classic “Made You Look” but he also produced the creeping JB-looping “Get Down” and the “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” sampling “Thief’s Theme” (vastly superior to last year’s “Hiphop Is Dead”). Nas has never really had his “own” producer but these days it certainly feels like Salaam is his first port-of-call for beats.

Salaam has also found success in the R&B field with North London’s Miss Dynamite and Amy Winehouse (North London standUP!). He’s a very skillfull producer and hasn’t gone more than a couple of years without producing a serious TUNE for fifteen years. That’s a good record by any reckoning.

Salaam on Discogs
Salaam on Myspace

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Self-promotion: I got a new blog of my own where I’ll be slinging up random music here and there and talking about vinyl, London and chocolate or whatever. I’ll still be on the Gat tip, in fact I’ll probably do more (that wouldn’t be hard right?). It’s called 16 33 45 78. Check it, peace!